Following the November terrorist attack in Paris, Governor Deal issued an executive order that was intended to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Georgia. In an interview with reporters earlier this month, Deal indicated he might file a lawsuit against the feds to prevent Syrian resettlement, and would order a defense by the state against any federal lawsuit arising from the state’s unwillingness to aid in the resettlement process.

However, Governor Deal also asked Attorney General Sam Olens to issue an opinion on whether Syrian refugee resettlement could be blocked. That opinion was issued today. In it, Olens said that blocking refugees from a specific country was not permissible under the law:

Essentially, and to the extent it is read most broadly, the scope of the executive order is limited by two things: (1) federal law and the Supremacy Clause and (2) the terms of its voluntary agreement with the federal government to participate in, and accept federal funding relating to, the Refugee Resettlement Program. I am unaware of any law or agreement that would permit a state to carve out refugees from particular countries from participation in the refugee resettlement program, no matter how well-intended or justified the desire to carve out such refugees might be. Accordingly, it is my official opinion that both federal law and the State’s agreement to act as the state refugee resettlement coordinator prevent the State from denying federally-funded benefits to Syrian refugees lawfully admitted into the United States.

In his opinion, Olens indicated he shared the governor’s concerns, and hoped that the federal government would do its best to scrutinize incoming refugees.

[T]he executive order responds to serious concerns about recent terrorist attacks linked to the ongoing conflict in Syria, concerns that legitimately extend to the current federal process for reviewing and accepting refugees from Syria into the United States and, more specifically, into the State of Georgia. I share those concerns and similarly hope that the federal government will take all necessary and appropriate steps to assure that all refugees, regardless of country of origin, be carefully scrutinized to ensure the safety of our citizens.

The governor’s office is reviewing Olens’s opinion.

Comes now the first prefiled Senate resolution for the 2016 session, proposed by Sen. Josh McKoon. SR 674 is seven lines long in its original form:

A RESOLUTION
1 Amending the Rules of the Senate; and for other purposes.
2 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that the Rules of the Senate are amended by adding
3 a new subsection to Rule 5-1.3, relating to voting, to read as follows:
4 “(f) Unless the members of the Senate by unanimous consent otherwise agree, each floor
5 amendment offered for adoption with regard to a bill or resolution being considered by the
6 Senate shall be voted upon by a roll-call vote and the results of which shall be entered into
7 the Journal.”

The origin and purpose of this resolution goes back to the closing hours of the 2015 session. The Senate was proceeding through a marathon calendar of bills, including a House cleanup bill that made Georgia drivers licenses conform to federal requirements. That was an opportunity for Sen. McKoon to attempt to amend the bill by adding the provisions of SB 6 to it.

SB 6 would eliminate a loophole that allows those illegal immigrants who are covered under President Obama’s DACA program (and proposed DAPA program) to receive Georgia drivers licenses. Under DACA, these immigrants get taxpayer ID numbers and other documentation that would currently qualify them to obtain licenses. The bill was referred to the Public Safety committee, where it still sits, awaiting action.

According to current Senate rules, the motion to amend is subject to a hand vote, rather than a recorded one. And according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the amendment failed, 27-16. The issue of illegal immigration, as anyone following the GOP presidential race knows, is an important one to the GOP base. Senators know that their proceedings are broadcast live and archived on video. Theoretically, that means that one could determine who voted for or against an amendment by looking at the video of the hand vote. But, Senators also know that there are places within the chamber that are out of or almost out of camera view, but visible from the Chair. And so, some retreated to the back of the room so the way they voted on McKoon’s amendment couldn’t be seen, or made other movements to make it difficult to track how they voted.

Upset that what amounted to being an unrecorded no vote on SB 6, anti-illegal immigration activists made it a point to have the April GOP district conventions and the May state convention vote on resolutions of support for SB 6, and requiring recorded votes for Senate amendments. In July, Sen. McKoon announced plans to strengthen SB6, as well as to introduce a Senate rules change to require the recorded votes.

And that brings us to SR 674. Unlike the House, where most proposed amendments are vetted by the Rules Committee, amendments to bills in the Senate can be introduced on the fly, and it’s not unusual to have multiple amendments to a bill under consideration. As one senator points out, requiring machine votes would slow down Senate proceedings even more than they are now. On the other hand, the issues of accountability and anger that elected officials don’t keep their promises have been cited as factors driving the rise of outsider candidates in the 2016 elections. Qualifying for each of the State Senate seats starts March 6th. Time will tell if this amendment will be a big issue in the eyes of Republican voters.

On Tuesday, the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute released a six page white paper calling on the Peach State to offer in-state college tuition to undocumented immigrants who are eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program instituted by President Obama. The think tank, which typically takes positions on the left side of the ideological scale, cites Georgia’s interest in creating a diverse workforce, Governor Deal’s push to grow the number of college graduates, and the potential tax revenue that could be gained from having Dreamers in the state’s workforce.

In its report, GBPI estimates there are 49,000 undocumented immigrants in Georgia eligible for the DACA program. 40% of those are high school graduates eligible to enter college, and almost two thirds are bilingual. It points out that the Complete College Georgia initiative calls for an additional quarter million college graduates to meet workforce needs by 2020. The report estimates that around 5,000 Dreamers would be part of that total if they could receive in-state tuition. In addition, the report points out that these graduates would further the state’s goal of making college graduates more representative of the state’s diversity. Finally, the paper estimates a $10 million increase in annual state tax revenue if once these DACA-eligible immigrants enter the workforce.

The GBPI report provides an interesting contrast to a graphic created by the Federation for American Immigration Reform that is making its way around social media. That graphic, shown at right, is based on reports issued by the right-leaning group citing the fiscal burden of illegal immigration on United States and Georgia taxpayers.

The FAIR report estimates that illegal immigration cost Georgians $2.4 billion annually and that immigrants contribute only $142 million in taxes, leaving a net cost to taxpayers of $2.26 billion, or $768 per household. 74% of that, however, is the estimated cost of educating the illegal and American-born children of illegal immigrants, at $1.67 billion. Both the Georgia Constitution and Supreme Court precedent require the state to provide a K-12 education to anyone residing in the state, regardless of legal status. Read more

Columbus State Senator Josh McKoon held a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday morning to present two proposals he intends to introduce at the start of the 2016 legislative session. One deals with a rewrite of Senate Bill 6, which eliminates the issuing of drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. The other would eliminate the practice of hand voting in the Senate. The two measures mirror resolutions offered at Republican District conventions this spring.

Senate Bill 6 never made it out of committee during the 2015 session. McKoon’s rewrite of the bill would strengthen the measure in four areas. It would more clearly define the term “sanctuary cities,” and it would establish a registry of criminal illegal immigrants similar to the sex offender registry already in place. It would clarify that the intent of the legislature is to prohibit illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition at schools within the university system, or the technical college system, or receiving Hope scholarships. It would also prohibit undocumented immigrrants from practicing law or becoming a licensed professional employed in a public school. Read more

Georgia Republicans held their Congressional District conventions on Saturday, with the purpose of electing leadership for the next two years, passing party rules, and considering resolutions of support or opposition to various public policies. In the Seventh District, which covers portions of Gwinnett and Forsyth counties, three resolutions were introduced dealing in some form with the issue of illegal immigration.

The first resolution supports banning the issuance of driver’s licenses for illegal aliens. Its goal mirrors that of Senate Bill 6, pre-filed before the start of the 2015 session by Senator Josh McKoon of Columbus. McKoon authored the legislation in anticipation of President Obama’s expansion of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to cover a much broader range of undocumented immigrants. Current law allows immigrants accepted into the DACA program to obtain the licenses; McKoon’s measure would end that option.

Senate Bill 6 was assigned to the Public Safety Committee, where it never got a hearing. As the 40 day session drew to a close, Senator McKoon attempted to attach his bill to a separate measure also dealing with drivers licenses. His motion failed. The failure of the Senate to approve his motion was the subject of an inflammatory article on the Breitbart Big Government website. That was the reason for the second resolution, which would require all Senate votes to be recorded by the chamber’s voting machine. McKoon’s amendment, like most that are offered in the Senate, was voted on by a show of hands.

The third resolution urges the General Assembly to approve a constitutional amendment making English the official language of the state of Georgia. A bill to do just that was introduced during the 2014 session by then-Senator Don Balfour. Senate Resolution 1031 would require virtually all state business–including the issuance of driver’s licenses–to be conducted in English.

The three resolutions were approved by the GOP delegates in the Seventh, which is the most diverse congressional district in the eastern United States. Similar resolutions were introduced and passed in other districts as well. Their passage positions the Republican Party as nativists, a position that can’t help but hurt the party and the state of Georgia’s prospects in the long run. Read more

Representative Jody Hice, the newly sworn-in Republican Congressman from Georgia’s 10th Congressional District recently gave his first speech from the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. You can watch Representative Hice’s comments in the video clip below:

Although Rep. Hice’s remarks were about setting the debate rules for 3 bills (including H.R. 240), he minced no words when it came to criticizing President Obama for overstepping the powers of the executive branch by failing to “faithfully carry out the  laws” passed by Congress. He also critiques the President for ignoring existing immigration laws “to achieve his executive amnesty objectives.”

H.R. 240, titled as the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, consists of measures to defund President Obama’s recently announced plans to defer deportation for millions of illegal immigrants, and to allow many of them to obtain work permits. This bill is also considered unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate due to the lack of Democratic support needed for its passage.

A new poll of Georgia residents conducted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution finds that a majority supports allowing illegal immigrant parents who have lived in the United States for five years and have no serious criminal convictions to remain in the country without being deported. This position mirrors the executive action announced by President Obama last November.

The AJC poll shows an equal percentage of men and women — 67 percent — support providing deportation deferrals and work permits to immigrant parents living without papers in the U.S. Support among Democratic respondents totaled 77 percent. That number dropped to 59 percent for Republicans.

Seventy-four percent of blacks indicated support compared with 62 percent of whites. Those living in metro Atlanta showed the most support — at 80 percent — compared with people in other parts of the state. The youngest group of those surveyed — ages 18-39 — support it the most at 78 percent. Those 40-64 years old showed the least support at 59 percent.

The AJC released the poll on the same day that the U.S. House voted to effectively roll back the President’s order. All of Georgia’s Republican representatives voted for the measure. To be fair, Georgia’s representatives explained their votes by citing an overreach of presidential authority. Presidential overreach was also the reason that Attorney General Sam Olens joined a Texas lawsuit seeking redress from the President’s actions.

Opposition to illegal immigration has become a driving force for many in the Tea Party, and immigration was used as a wedge issue in Georgia’s election campaigns. Yet, with a majority of Georgians — especially millennials — supporting relief for some undocumented immigrants, is it time to reconsider how many in the GOP approach the issue?